One race on the slating card for tomorrow's Marion County Democratic Convention clearly demonstrates everything that is wrong with the County Party. Slating, of course, is meant to eliminate any Primary contest. The excuse for our County being the only one in the State and nearly the only one in the Country to slate candidates for the spring ballot is that folks 'who know the candidates best' make the better decision over the electorate. Meanwhile, the County Chairman is busy recruiting temporary Precinct Committeemen, Vice-PCs, Ward Chairs, and Vice-WCs to vote in tomorrow's slating exactly like he wants them to.
The race for County Clerk is important to everyone. The Mayor's job is the only one that is more demanding and more extensive than is that of the Clerk. Beth White, the current Clerk, has done a phenomenal job in her tenure; but term limits bar her from continuing. At her side has been the able Myla Eldridge, for many years the person actually running the elections.
Eldridge is clearly the best candidate. She knows what the job entails and has excelled at it. She is exceedingly competent - exactly what you want in a public servant in a demanding job. While under her watch, Eldridge and White have improved the election process leaps and bounds.
The Clerk also has responsibility for all of the records of the Superior Courts, marriage licenses, probate, child support, and campaign finance. It will be a nightmare if any of these gets messed up.
Eldridge's opponent is the current Coroner, Frank Lloyd. He has been totally incompetent. He started his tenure by firing Pathologists who later won a discrimination lawsuit against the City because of it. Autopsies take too long. Getting a death certificate from his office is a challenge. Body parts, unmentionable ooze, stench and indignity of human remains have been cited under his watch. He hasn't shown up at Council hearings to present and defend his budget for years. For some reason, he is the only one who gets a pass in being held accountable.
If elected, Lloyd would either have to be a ghost employee or the County would face severely damaged elections, court proceedings, and messed up child support issues. He has been an utter failure as Coroner.
Hopefully for all of us, there will be fewer hand selected voters at tomorrow's slating and more elected PCs and V-PCs who will vote for good, capable, government by voting for Myla Eldridge.
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Unintended Consequences
43 minutes ago
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Lloyd didn't fire the pathologists; Ackles did that. Lloyd did, however, keep the chief deputy coroner in her job who actually ran the coroner's office under Ackles and who was responsible for all of the day-to-day mismanagement and discrimination that took place in the office. He was an absentee officeholder just like Ackles. Does anyone believe he's going to give up his medical practice to work full-time as county clerk as all other county clerks in recent memory have done?
County clerk is a full-time job. Heck it's probably 2 or 3 full-time jobs. I agree with Gary. I can't see him giving up his medical practice.
Thanks for the correction, Gary.
Did Frank Lloyd ever serve on the board of Methodist Hospital? The name seems familiar. In the 1980's, I believe a board member by that name had invested a lot of money into a concern called King Cola. If I remember correctly,this beverage concern was an endeavor initiated by -at the time- a very prominent family by the surname of Heilbrunn. Of course,in later years it was discovered the Heilbrunn's (of The Yogurt Connection fame) were involved in one of the largest marijuana importation operations in the country.
Good blog. However, this post has some misinformation which begets clarification. Gary Welsh is right that it was Ackles who fired the pathologists and did many more wrongs (resulting in multiple lawsuits) that Frank Lloyd had to unfortunately deal with when he took over!! From what I know, under Lloyd's leadership, the Coroner office improved like never before. For the first time in it's history, the office secured federal grant funds on two occasions to the tune of $250k. This was used to modernize the entire operations of the office [such as, providing field laptops for deputies, mobile radios, a digital X-ray system for autopsies, modern body handling and storage rack systems in the morgue, and such). He also spearheaded efforts to receive accreditation from NAME (National Association of Medical Examiners). The office also received accreditation from ACGME (which helped to successfully run the state' only forensic pathology fellowship program). The office implemented lean six sigma across its entire operations and through that reduced turn around time for death certificates dramatically, that received due recognition from Mayor Ballard!! All this was done, when the office had to face budget cuts year after year!
As far as whether, he will give up his medical practice or not if he were to win the Clerk's race, the question is, why is he then going through all this hassle for running?? He has practiced surgery for more than 25 years, and may now want to do something else (after 6 years as the Coroner, which is part time position).
As far as anonymous' question on his association with Methodist, from what I know, his father [Frank Lloyd, Sr.] was the President/CEO of Methodist Hospital during the 80s.
In the end, I'd like to say that everything I said above can be verified independently by anyone!! Thanks for creating this forum.
KK - his performance has been a hot mess. There is no sense in giving him another 'public service' job to screw up.
a lot of reasons why this ought to be an appointed office
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